Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Mum-Ho-Thep and the Floating Ziggurat of Doom. The WFB3e scenario for Blog-Con 2013.

Below is the narrative and scenario details for the Warhammer 3rd edition table at Blog-Con 2013. Not only that, this is my 100th post! Woot!

Mum-Ho-Thep and the Floating Ziggurat of Doom. Blog-Con
2013 (9th of November).

The Ziggurat glided
silently onward to the next locus point of Mum-Ho-Thep’s scattered realm. It
looked as though beams of pure magic had carved it away from a more natural
resting place. The living rock, from which the main temple itself had been
carved in a distant era, was tortured and twisted. A lone Skeleton sentry
stood, immobile, staring out towards the horizon. It would easily be mistaken
for a statue, were it not for the tattered rags flapping about the shoulders.
The skull turned very slightly, almost imperceptibly. It looked out to the north
where a smudge had appeared at the edge of perception. Was it a cloud bank? Fog?
What was that rising from it, a wisp of smoke? No. It was a banner. The smudge
was an army and it was closing fast! As soon as the mindless automaton had seen
the forces of Chaos the image was transmitted to the Liche, Korvun. He had been
poring over an ancient map that depicted this place as it would have been 4000
years ago but now he looked up from his chart table and sent out an urgent
thought to his minions. “Prepare the ritual, activate the Array, summon the Guardians!
We must awaken the Master and crush these interlopers!”

Inside his
sarcophagus, Mum-Ho-Thep began to stir for the first time in centuries…

The Floating Ziggurat of Mum-Ho-Thep is an ancient Slann
device, an engine of great power that resides atop a prehistoric temple. Nobody
remembers now what the device was intended for but at some point it was
captured from the Old Ones by the immeasurably old and powerful human sorcerer,
Mum-Ho-Thep. Those rare books that mention him at all say that he was born into
an age of stone with the ability to see and manipulate the winds of magic when
most of his peers had little more than fire, flint and spear to wield. He was
able to command mighty spells many centuries before the Elves deigned to teach
magic to mankind leading some scholars to compare him to the terrible
Drachenfels himself. He is said to have led a rebellion against the Slann and
wrested control of the temple in a bitter struggle, magic flashing in the sky
and men and Slann alike falling dead without a mark on them. Once inside and in
control of the temple, Mum-Ho-Thep activated the Array which caused the earth
itself to buck and heave as the temple was torn from the land and the Floating
Ziggurat was created. At first, Mum-Ho-Thep was able to guide his new fortress
anywhere he wished, as well as gliding sedately across the face of the world
the Array allowed the entire structure to disappear and reappear anywhere on
the planet, but as the millennia passed he took to spending more and more time
in his regenerating sarcophagus while the operation of the Array became a lost
art to his servants. As his living army dwindled to be replaced by skeletal
warriors by necromantic means the Ziggurat settled into a pattern of visiting a
set number of previous destinations, the loci. Now, the Ziggurat wanders along
this route over and over. It floats for miles before winking out of existence and
reappearing at the next locus point to continue the journey. This route is the
realm of Mum-Ho-Thep, those who live along it see him as a benevolent God-King
and offer up tribute at his passing. There are always those who try to expand
their borders into this realm but eventually, the Ziggurat returns and the Undead
armies of Mum-Ho-Thep take a cruel revenge on the usurpers, often with the aid
of local forces who have worshiped their God-King for generations.

What you need to bring if you're joining in on Saturday the 9th of November.

First off, let me distinguish between the two groups of people taking part. Many people have expressed an interest in stopping by the Warhammer 3rd edition table to say hi and roll a few dice, you will be made very welcome and as casual participants none of the following need apply to you.

For those hardcore retro-gamers out there who are bringing miniatures along and will be staying to play the entire game on the Saturday (and coming out for a post game beer afterwards hopefully!), listen in. I have based the scenario around Orlygg's Chaos army clashing against a mish-mash force of Mum-Ho-Thep's servants and allies. I know several of those attending will be bringing some Undead, and these will form the core of Mum-Ho-Thep's army while any Chaos stuff you guys bring can ally with either side as appropriate. Extras like Lenihan/Robotforaday's Fimir will be added to Mum-Ho-Thep's force too. I will have a mixture of metal and plastic Undead as well as a few Chaos units to help balance out either side if necessary. Whatever minis you want to bring can be fitted in and will be very welcome indeed.

To speed things up on the day it would be a very good idea indeed to have an aide memoire sheet with all your stats/rules on one page, a number of movement trays, a tape measure and don't forget to bring a handful of dice! Orlygg and I provided all this for the RoC game at the BOYL weekend but with so many people sharing it all the game was slowed down quite a bit.

If there are any questions at all, just contact me in your preferred way and I will get back to you asap.

Hi Paul, I'm planning to introduce myself and spend a day with you guys. I have a bunch of old skeletons to bring, some I've painted more recently, others...well I painted when oldhammer was young and so was I....

Oh, and I'm still sulking that my skeletons were lifted from 2.5 to 10 points each! damn new edition...mumble...grumble....

That's fantastic! I'll be very pleased to have you involved, looking forward to meeting you.

I've had many conversations about how the Undead are the only troops to suffer an 'x-factor' penalty to their points cost while everything else follows a formula, just let me say that a good GM will recognise when to tweak the points cost down and when not too!

Points cost? Just stick the minis on the table and get on with it! This is a fantastic sounding scenario and should be the starting shot of other great narrative games. Do you have a ziggerut scenery piece up your sleeves for us?

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